6 - Wednesday, August 28, 1985 - North Shere News Editorial Page om penalty MANITOBA judge recently recom- " ‘mended that drinking drivcis be issued red licence plates to separate the offenders from law-abiding drivers. Although’ the stigma of. driving a marked "car may shame. an offender into straighien- _ ing kis ways, ‘a -mere relevant; ‘punishment is _more likely to curb. ‘the drunken driver. a ifa youngster. misses his curfew and comes home - late, his‘ ‘punishment: shouldn’t be to take out the garbage, but rather he should te grounded from further evening activities. Similarly, if a child gets a D in English on his report card, he shouldn’t be. sent to bed - without dinner, but: rather he should have'to - . putin extra hours of homework and study. : The: ‘Panishm nt should fit the~ crime. - the emergency wards ‘of ‘hospital = Id -be' an eye-opener, having | victims -. of — runken. accidents. rushed: ‘through the doors. |. “Wf a, drank motorist is.a repeat:offender, he. . should be ‘jmprisoned ‘like other criminals. ; 7 the. bloodied . - And if the drank’ kills a. person, he should: be: an aviets so why should’ we mark unken ‘drivezs, especially: if. they’ve cone to Wreck Beach. They say it will make it easier to arrest the bad guys. But they . hat beach been. any trouble. at the ighisee in the area. B.C.’s deficit ld be paid in time. for’ r Expo. splay "advertising _ . Subscriptions . 21138 Lonedel= Ave.. , North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2H4 ‘ Publisher: Peter Speck.” General Manager Roger McAfee ‘Operations Manager Berni Hilliard -; Marketing Director 7” Linda Stewart Advertsing Director - Admin, .Mike Goodsell-. " Editor.in- Chief. Noel Wright’ ’ Classified Manager. - Val Stephenson oo") Chris Johnson | 7" / Photography Manager ; Terry Peters ” * North. Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban ., Newspaper and qualified under Schedule Hl, Part lll, Paragsaph Il of the Excise Tax Act, is publisned each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by | 3, North Shore Free Press Ltd. and distributed to every door on the North: - Shore. Second Class Mail Registration Number 3885. Entlre contents © 1985 North Shore Free Press Ltd, All rights reserved. Sunscriptions, North and Wes! Vancouver, $25. per year. Mailing rates available on request. No responsibility accepted for unsolicited material including . Manuscripts and pictures which shouid be accompanied by a stamped, addressed envsiope. _Member of the B.C. Press Council ee 56,245 (average, Wednesday _. SDA DIMSION Friday & Sunday) THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE. : 980-0511 lassified Advertising. 986-6222 - Advertising Director : Sales vy. Star Wars before Reagan Dear Editor: ; “WHY NOT PRINT all the good news instead. of. 7 all the bad news?’’ asked the rector, an otherwise dinner party. In theory, .of course,: the ‘reverend gentleman has. a very sound point. The nice things happening every’ day do’ vastly ‘out-. numbe: the nasty things. For example; hundreds of planes ° land and take off safely each . week at Vancouver airport. Months ‘can pass without a ‘single boating fatality. in ‘Howe Sound. At any given - time a dozen newborn babies’. are doing fine in Lions Gate Hospital. ;More husbands and fae thers look after their. wives and families. than don’t. Most citizens never shoplift, _ rob a bank or commit arson. Most school -kids’ stay clear of the police and eventually make it to graduation. | In short; the real world is . actually” a whole lot pieas- anter than the world of the news media. That’ 's the good : hews. The bad news is that the good news is simply too plentiful..There’s so much of it around that it becomes boring. As a result, all past “— to: Profs ‘hews- Mr. Hunter implies that the defense of the space above us is immoral with no _real benefit other than to create a new vehicle for our eventual doomsday! As a comparison with today’s ’ lethargic public reaction to such matters as. defending ourselves, Mr."Hunter would _ have had a tougher. time of it convincing Britons during WWIL that: their. fighter * plane air defense shouldn't “papers. filled’ solely with good news. have unfailingly gone belly-up. - Nine times out of ten,.in fact, “good news”” tradiction in terms. ‘‘News’?’ “means.,what it says: .some- thing - ‘NEW, unusual, ‘sur-. * prising. The majority of © people being good, the ma-, “jority of | genuinely" NEW, “unusual, surprising happen-. “ings . inevitably tend to be “bad. : .. There’s “noble: exception. The. girl ‘camp leader who fought off ‘a cougar mauling one of her Brownies. Tne. bank ‘cus- tomer who tackles a hold- up artist. The Terry Foxes, . Steve Fonyos |: and Rick Hansens. But far more typical i is the model spouse and father, who may. be admirable but definitely isn’t news. His on- ly hope of ever . becoming news is to start beating his wife or assaulting his. 10- year-old daughter. Indeed, if the media didn’t serve up generous: helpings - of bad news, there would be~ have ‘existed, using his.same, ‘moral’ gounds, while ‘they were trying (to protect themselves from.” Nazi air force bombing raids. Also for Mr. Hunter’s edification, President Reagan did NOT initiate the space defence plan! It was first devised, started AND funded by loyal American citizens who felt betrayed by the ver¥ pro-socialist Demo- cratic Party then in power -is a con-. . the. occasional : ‘friendly fellow guest at a mellow end- ror Necation. Noel Wright © ; "about. the Budget,-Ethiopia: little or no news at al! most” days. And that could be even worse sews than the bad news. Citizens in this Informa- tion Age want, and are en- titled, to know what’s going on, however . shocking or kooky. Not least because such knowledge helps keep’: ‘of trouble. themselves (‘‘there, but for” them out the grace of God, go I!”).. ’ which was .s attempting to lead “the Unied States down’ the’. same alien ‘paths we have-.. followed under our: recent. governnients. This program - was, and I believe still is, called ‘‘High Frontier’’. Later on, when President Reagan wanted his. gov- ernment to promote this defense plan, it was nicknamed ‘Star Wars’ by | that U.S. Senator of very questionable integrity, Ed- ward “Kennedy, and the “and Afghanistan? * anchorman, pe also" secretly enjoy: conflict -. =the. basic ingredient “of ae : ‘Pp apart. “Whatever - happened “Even Beirut has dropped ‘tothe | : bottom of the ratings. Stan Burke, one-time CBC ye. the “best defence ever..of bad news. . The National; he said, sent : viewers: to : bed happy by showing them - ‘how’ many ‘other: -people.had had..an — 7 even rottener day. We rest our case, Rever- end! “ name’ chas . ‘been. . cused . denigrate: Western: space every left : wing . media hype’ ever since!» * So. while we ‘may “not -sée Mr.. Hunter as’ the; Commie , stooge that he says he is be- ing: called ‘by. some readers, he. should, be” advised that people,.. -especially writers, are always remembered by the company they keep! -- Geoff Fenton... North Vancouver, B.C.